NEW YORK CITY (March 10, 2014) – Five Rend Lake College Indoor Track and Field athletes participated in a number of events over the weekend at the NJCAA Division I National Championship, held at The Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. Three of those athletes had personal bests: Mallory Bergbower, Karson Hahn, and Jonathan Hill.

Bergbower, a freshman from Bluford, Ill., was the sole representative for the Lady Warriors. She competed in the 5000-meter run finals, placing 11th with a time of 20:36.21, her personal best. Bergbower improved on her Feb. 21 Regional time of 21:27.10.

Sophomore Hill (Sparta, Ill.) and freshman Hahn (Mt. Vernon, Ill.) made up half of the distance medley relay (DMR) with fellow teammates Tyrone Echols (Venice, Ill.) and Wesley Bradshaw (Walsh, Ill.). Hill started the relay with the 1200m run, earning his personal best of 3:20. Echols followed with the 400m run.

Hahn then ran his personal best of 1:57.9 in the 800m leg. Finally, Bradshaw finished the 1600m run, putting the Warriors in 11th place with a time of 10:55.85 for the DMR. Immediately after completing the DMR, Bradshaw, a sophomore, ran in the 5000m run finals, finishing in 17th place with a time of 17:47.60.

Sophomore Echols also competed in two additional events, the 60m dash and the 200m dash. During the first event, the 60-meter dash, he placed 23rd in the preliminaries with a time of 6.956. He also placed 29th during the 200m dash with a time of 22.37, bettering his Regional time of 22.58.

Rend Lake College Track and Field athletes stand on the track at The Armory Center in New York City. Pictured is, FROM LEFT, Head Coach James Wooldridge; Wesley Bradshaw of Walsh, Ill.; Jonathan Hill of Sparta, Ill.; Mallory Bergbower of Bluford, Ill.; Tyrone Echols of Venice, Ill.; Karson Hahn of Mt. Vernon, Ill.; and Assistant Coach Kent Leek. Click on the image for a larger view.

Head Coach James Wooldridge said his athletes made the trip one of the best he’s made to a National Championship.

“I am proud of our athletes as competitors and as people. They are an amazing group of young adults,” said Wooldridge. “We had three indoor personal bests and everyone put their heart into every event. As a coach, you want your athletes to represent their school in the highest regard and they did that without question. Our Assistant Track Coach Kent Leek was infallible in negotiating side trips on downtime and we were able to see some of the great historical sites. I would like to add a personal thank you to Rend Lake College for making it possible for our team to have these incredible experiences.”

Emerging as the Men’s National Champions was Iowa Central Community College (ICCC) of Fort Dodge, Iowa with a score of 143. Coffeyville Community College of Coffeyville, Kans. and Colby Community College of Colby, Kans. tied for second place with 71 points each.

Finishing in first for the women’s teams was ICCC with 174.5 points. The National Champions were followed by New Mexico Junior College of Hobbs, N.M., in second with 80.5 points and Essex County of Newark, N.J., in third with 62 points.